GLOSSARY

ENCARNACIÓN HIDALGO TENORIO

Acronym. An abbreviation formed from the first components in a word or a phrase; usually,
these are individual letters, or parts of words, which are read as if they were an ordinary
word, as in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, /ˈneɪtəʊ/). Contrast with initialism.
Additive morph. Any suffix attached to a base or stem to produce a new word (e.g. plentyN
> plenty·fulAdj) or a new word form (e.g. walkInf > walk·ingPr.Part).
Adjective. An open word-class which, formally, very often shows three forms which are
associated with the notion of grade: the absolute, the comparative and the superlative
forms (big / bigger / biggest). The main syntactic role of an adjective as Head of an
adjective phrase is to qualify a noun either in a noun phrase (i.e. attributive position, e.g. a
big house) or through the function Subject Complement in the Predicate (i.e. predicative
position, e.g. The house is big).
Adjunct. A type of Adverbial typically realised by adverb phrases (e.g. She left yesterday),
prepositional phrases (e.g. She left in the morning), noun phrases (e.g. She left last year),
or clauses (e.g. She left when it stopped raining), and whose meaning is often connected
with place, time, manner and other circumstantial relations.
Adverb. A word that modifies verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, determinatives, noun phrases,
clauses or sentences. Its most typical syntactic function is Head of the adverb phrase.
Traditionally, adverbs are regarded as one of the parts of speech, or word-classes. They
usually express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering
questions such as ‘how?’, ‘when?’, ‘where?’ or ‘to what extent?’. Formally, they are very
often invariable, although some can show three forms which are associated with the notion
of grade: the absolute, or positive, the comparative and the superlative forms (soon /
sooner / soonest); adjective-derived adverbs tend to end in -ly (e.g. recently).
Adverbial. A typically optional clause constituent which modifies either the Predicator or
the clause as a whole, whose meaning mainly refers to manner (e.g. happily), place (e.g.
there) and time (e.g. now), as well as attitude (e.g. personally), addition (e.g. in addition),
enumeration (e.g. firstly), inference (e.g. therefore) or concession (e.g. nevertheless). They
can be realised by adverb phrases, noun phrases, prepositional phrases or clauses. See also
adjunct, disjunct and conjunct.
Affix. A morpheme that is attached to a word base or stem to form a new lexeme or word-
form, respectively. Affixes may be derivational, like -dis and un-, or inflectional, like -s for
the plural and -ed for the past participle. They are bound morphemes by definition;
188 GLOSSARY

depending on whether they are added at the beginning, the middle or at the end of the base
unit, they are called prefixes, infixes or suffixes.
Affixation. The process of adding an affix to a word at the beginning (i.e. prefixation), the
middle (i.e. infixation) or the end (i.e. suffixation) of the base unit in order to create either
(a) a different form of that word (read > reads), or (b) a new word with a different lexical
meaning (read > reader).
Affixoid. Also known as semi-affix, it is sometimes described as an element that may
diachronically be in the process of becoming an affix (e.g. top- meaning ‘of high quality’).
Agreement. A formal relationship between two grammatical elements whereby a form of
one of the elements requires a corresponding form of the other; for instance, the Subject
and the Predicator must agree in number (The boy sings vs. The boys sing), certain
Determiners must agree with their Head (this boy vs. these boys), and pronouns show
number and gender agreement with their antecedents (the girl > she; the boys > they).
Allophone. In linguistics, an audibly distinct variant of a phoneme, such as the different
pronunciations of the t in tone [tʰəʊn] and stone [stəʊn]. Given that the substitution of one
allophone for another allophone of the same phoneme does not lead to a different word,
just a different pronunciation of the same word, they are said to be non-contrastive.
Allomorph. Each variant formal realisation of a morpheme. For instance, the plural
morpheme in English has several allomorphs: /s/, as in cats; /z/, as in dogs; /ɪz/, as in foxes;
/ən/, as in children; or zero, as in sheep.
Alternation. A variation in the form of a word or other linguistic feature. In morphology,
alternation is equivalent to allomorphy. The form involved in an alternation is known as
alternant.
Arbitrariness. The absence of any natural, or necessary, connection between the meaning of
a word and its sound or form. Although there are some words that exhibit an apparent
connection between sound and sense, this happens very rarely, for instance, in
onomatopoeia.
Article. A type of closed word-class that typically precedes the Head of a noun phrase and
functions as Determiner. In English, there are two articles, the definite article the and the
indefinite a(n). The definite article specifies a particular individual known to both speaker
and hearer; the indefinite article can indicate that the noun it precedes is a member of a
class and that its referent is unknown to the interlocutors.
Assertiveness. Assertive words such as some, already, something, sometimes, somewhere or
someone are generally used in positive, declarative sentences. In contrast, non-assertive
words are normally found either in interrogative or negative sentences, as well as in
conditional clauses, and with adverbs, adjectives, verbs, pronouns, determinatives and
prepositions that have a negative meaning (e.g. any, anything, anybody, ever or yet).
Aspect. A grammatical category of the verb phrase connected with the notions of
completion, duration or repetition. In English we find the perfect (or perfective) aspect,
realised by combining the auxiliary verb have with the past participle, and the progressive
(or continuous) aspect, realised by combining the auxiliary verbs be or keep and the
present participle. Aspectual meaning can also be expressed lexically by means of
prepositional phrases, adverb phrases or lexical verbs.
Assimilation. A process by which one sound becomes more like a nearby sound; this can
occur either within a word or between words. Sound segments typically assimilate to a
following sound; this is called anticipatory assimilation (e.g. /n/ in bank becomes [ŋ]
because of the influence of /k/); they may also assimilate to a preceding one; this is known
as progressive assimilation (e.g. in it’s the verb is devoiced because of the influence of /t/).
Contrast with dissimilation.
Attachment. The general pattern of morphological attachment is simple affixation, or
concatenation.
GLOSSARY 189

Attributive adjective phrase. An adjective phrase that usually comes before the Head noun
it modifies without a copulative verb. Contrast with predicative adjective phrase.
Axis. The constituent of prepositional phrases or genitive phrases typically realised by a
noun phrase and preceded by the Relator.
Auxiliary verb. A verb (such as do, can, have or be) that indicates the tense, mood, aspect or
voice of the main verb within a verb phrase. Auxiliary verbs are also known as helping
verbs. Contrast with lexical verb.

Back-formation. The process of forming a new word by subtracting an ending which

apparently looks like an affix from another word; thus, by means of back-formation, we
obtain shortened words from longer words (e.g. babysitter > babysit, editor > edit).
Base. The unit to which prefixes and suffixes are added to create new words. For example,
polite is the base for forming impolite and politeness. Contrast with root and stem.
Base allomorphy. Also known as root allomorphy, it applies to bases or roots which have
more than one form (e.g. destroy > destruction; wife > wives).
Blending. A word formed by merging the sounds and meanings of, generally, two words
(e.g. breakfast + lunch > brunch). One typical type is exemplified by the combination of a
full word with a word part as in motorcade (motor + cavalcade).
Bound morpheme. A morpheme that cannot stand alone as a word, such as derivational
morphemes and inflectional morphemes. Contrast with free morpheme.
Bracketing. A technique used in grammar to mainly represent the internal constituency of
complex grammatical units by using pairs of brackets around constituents, as in [Greek
philosophers] [could see] [the solution]. A constituent can be a morpheme, word, phrase or
clause. See immediate constituent analysis and tree diagram.

Case. A grammatical category of nominal elements to express their syntactic relationship

with other clausal or phrasal constituents. From a traditional perspective, English nouns
are claimed to have two case inflections: the common case (e.g. John) and the possessive,
or genitive, case (e.g. John’s). Pronouns have three case distinctions: subjective or
nominative (e.g. I, who), objective or accusative (e.g. me, whom) and possessive or
genitive (e.g. my/mine, whose).
Categorial meaning. It is one part of grammatical meaning, that is, that part of the meaning
of lexemes which derives from their being members of one word-class rather than another
(nouns rather than verbs, verbs rather than adjectives, etc.).
Clause. A grammatical unit whose structure typically consists of a Subject and a Predicate.
Clauses may be independent, coordinate or subordinate. Contrast with sentence.
Clefting. A process whereby some element in a sentence is moved from its unmarked
position into a separate clause to give it greater emphasis. The two major types of cleft
constructions in English are it-clefts (e.g. It was my sister who suggested this explanation)
and wh-clefts (e.g. What she couldn’t understand was why it should be so hard to speak
honestly to people).
Clipping. The process by means of which a word is formed after dropping part of a syllable,
one syllable or more from a word or several words, such as prof from professor, chute
from parachute, specs from spectacles or sitcom from situation comedy. A clipped form
generally has the same denotative meaning as the word it comes from, but it is regarded as
more informal.
Closed word-class. A type of word-class to which no new items can be added, such as
articles, prepositions, or coordinators and subordinators. Their members tend to be
morphologically invariable and have grammatical meaning. Contrast with open word-
class.
190 GLOSSARY

Collective noun. A noun (such as team, government or family) that refers to a group of
individuals. Collective nouns can have singular or plural agreement with the verb, and can
be replaced by both singular and plural pronouns, depending on the speaker’s intended
meaning.
Combining form. Bound bases of classical origin occurring in neoclassical compounds (e.g.
biography, pharmacology, rhinoceros, thermometer). They provide the core lexical
meaning of words, and can combine with bound roots (e.g. fratr·icide), with other
combining forms (e.g. bio·cide) and with words (e.g. sperm·icide). Depending on their
distribution, they are called initial combining forms (e.g. morph·ology) or final combining
forms (e.g. allo·morph).
Common noun. A noun that is not the name of any particular person, place or thing, but
represents one or any of the members of a class, which combines with all kinds of
Determiners and accepts restrictive modification. Syntactically, common nouns can be
subdivided into count nouns and mass nouns. Semantically, common nouns can be
classified as abstract nouns and concrete nouns. Contrast with proper noun.
Complement. A phrase or clause that is necessary to complete the meaning of a given
expression. Complements can appear at phrase level, complementing, for instance, nouns
(e.g. the teacher of linguistics) or adjectives (e.g. eager to see them), or at clause level,
complementing the Subject (e.g. She is very clever) or the Direct Object (e.g. They elected
her president).
Complementary distribution. Commonly applied to phonetics and phonology; for example,
in English, [p] and [pʰ] are allophones of the phoneme /p/ because they occur in
complementary distribution; [pʰ] occurs when it is the syllable onset and followed by a
stressed vowel, as in pen; [p] occurs in all other situations (as in spouse). In morphology,
this concept is applied, for example, in the analysis of allomorphs, which can be different
faces of one and the same word, or morpheme; thus, whilst English indefinite article a is
used before a word beginning with a consonant sound (e.g. a house), indefinite article an is
used before a word beginning with a vowel sound (e.g. an animal). Contrast with free
variation.
Complex sentence. A sentence consisting of a main or independent clause that contains at
least one subordinate clause as realisation of one of its constituents (e.g. I did it because I
love you). Contrast with simple sentence and compound sentence.
Complex word. Also known as polymorphemic word, it is a word made up of two or
more morphemes. It may consist of (1) a base (or root), and one or more affixes
(e.g. un·law·ful·ly); or (2) more than one root in a compound (e.g. butter·fingers). Contrast
with simplex word.
Complex-transitive structure. A clause pattern requiring both a Direct Object and an
Object Complement (e.g. He kept the coffee fresh), or both a Direct Object and an
Adverbial Complement (e.g. He put the cup of coffee on the desk). In a complex-transitive
construction, the Object Complement identifies a quality pertaining to the Direct Object.
Verbs entering in such a structure include believe, consider, find, judge, keep, name and
prove.
Compositionality. The idea according to which the meaning of a word is the sum of the
meanings of its constituents. Contrast with non-compositionality.
Compound sentence. A sentence consisting of two or more clauses linked by coordination
(e.g. I lost you but I found country music). Contrast with simple sentence and complex
sentence.
Compounding. The process of combining two free morphemes in order to create a new
word, commonly a noun, a verb or an adjective. Sometimes they are written as one single
word (e.g. sunglasses), sometimes as two hyphenated words (e.g. time-consuming),
sometimes as two separate words (e.g. window cleaner). Scholars distinguish two main
subcategories: endocentric and exocentric compounds.
GLOSSARY 191

Concatenation. A process dealing with the formation of new lexical units by putting at least
two morphemes together. Concatenative processes are the most productive in the Indo-
European language family; therefore, they are of major concern when it comes to
discussing word-formation processes in English. These include affixation and
compounding. Contrast with non-concatenation.
Conjugation. The term conjugation is applied to the inflection of verbs. It is restricted to
denoting the formation of tensed forms of a verb (e.g. am, is, are, was, were). It may be
affected by person, number, tense, mood, aspect and voice. Contrast with declension.
Conjunct. A type of Adverbial normally realised by adverb phrases, as well as prepositional
phrases, which helps to indicate the relationship in meaning between two sentences (e.g.
therefore, moreover, all in all).
Constituency. The relation between a linguistic unit (i.e. a constituent) and the larger unit of
which it is a part. A constituent can be a morpheme, word, phrase or clause. Constituency
is traditionally represented by bracketing or tree structures.
Content clause. A content clause is a subordinate clause that provides content implied, or
commented upon, by its main clause. There are two main types of content clauses, i.e.
declarative content clauses (or that-clauses), as in She thought that he was too late, and
interrogative content clauses (or indirect questions), as in She wondered if that couple
would get happy in the future.
Continuous morphology. A view of morphology where inflection and derivation are ends of
a gradient, with clear cases at each end of the gradient and less clear cases between the
ends. Contrast with split morphology.
Conversion. A word-formation process, also known as zero-derivation, by means of which
we obtain a word of a new word-class without adding any affixes to the free base (e.g.
emptyAdj vs. emptyV). This does not involve any formal change, except for occasional shift
in the syllable stress (e.g. ˈpermitN vs. perˈmitV). The directionality of the process cannot
always be easily identified.
Coordination. The grammatical connection of two or more words, phrases or clauses which
are syntactically at the same level. Clauses joined by coordination are main clauses, or
coordinate clauses. This is in contrast to subordination, by means of which a subordinate
clause is inserted into a main clause.
Coordinative compound. Also called dvandva compound, it is a compound of the form
[[x][y]], the meaning of which can be characterised as ‘X as well as Y’. Rather than one
Head, it has two Heads, as neither of the bases is superordinate to the other (e.g. sleepwalk,
bittersweet or maidservant). Contrast with subordinative compounds.
Coordinator. A grammatical or function word (e.g. and, but, or) that joins the elements of a
coordinate structure, that is, elements which are syntactically at the same level. Also
known as coordinating conjunction. Contrast with subordinator.
Copulative structure. A clause pattern where a copulative verb connects the Subject of a
sentence with an element (typically, an adjective phrase or a noun phrase) known as
Subject Complement, which is its referential equivalent or specifies some attribute that
describes it. Copulative verbs usually denote a state (e.g. be) or a process (e.g. become) of
being.
Count noun. A type of common noun that presents number contrast (i.e. singular and plural
forms), and can combine with indefinite articles or numerals. Semantically, it refers to
entities that can be individuated and counted. Many nouns can be found in both countable
and non-countable contexts, such as coffee, which is used as uncountable in a cup of coffee
and as uncountable in three coffees. Contrast with mass noun.
Cranberry morpheme. Also known as unique morphemes, they are non-recurrent
morphemes, that is, bound morphemes that occur only once in isolated words like -ledge in
know·ledge or cran- in cran·berry. These morphemes cannot be easily tied with a specific
meaning.
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Cumulation. The process by which more than one morpheme is gathered under one only
morph. See also portmanteau morph.

Declarative mood. A term used in the grammatical classification of sentence types.

Sentences in the declarative mood are typically used to make assertions about the real
word and their Subject tends to precede the Predicator (e.g. They are very clever). Contrast
with interrogative, imperative and exclamative mood.
Declension. The inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives and articles to indicate number
(plural vs. singular) and case (nominative, accusative and genitive). A declension is also a
group of nouns that follow a particular pattern of inflection. It occurs in many languages,
and features very prominently in many European languages. Old English was a highly
inflected language, but its declensions greatly simplified as it evolved into Modern and
Contemporary English. Contrast with conjugation.
Deixis. Deixis refers to words or phrases (such as this, that, here, there, now or then) that
point to the time, place or situation in which the speaker is speaking. Without that
contextual information, those expressions have little or no meaning at all.
Deontic modality. A subcategory of modality semantically associated with the notion of
force, either internal (desire) or external (obligation, advice, permission, prohibition). It is
usually realised by modal verbs (e.g. must, should, will, can, may), modal nouns (e.g.
willingness), modal adjectives, (e.g. advisable) or lexical verbs (e.g. prohibit, allow).
Contrast with epistemic modality.
Dependent. An element that accompanies the Head in a phrase. Most of them are fairly
optional and can be omitted with few syntactic consequences (e.g. Modifiers), while others
are fairly obligatory or required by the Head (e.g. Complements).
Derivation. In morphology, the process of creating a new word usually by adding a prefix or
a suffix to a base. Contrast with inflection.
Derivative. By the application of certain modifications to a base unit, or source, derivational
processes create new lexemes from existing lexemes, or derivatives. Also known as output.
Descriptivism. A non-judgmental approach to a language focused on how it is actually
spoken and written. Contrast with prescriptivism.
Determinant, also known as Determinans. A linguistic unit that modifies another linguistic
unit. For example, in Nice students, nice is the determinant, or Modifier, and students is
the determinatum, or that which is to be determined. In morphology, this term can be
applied to affixation and compounding; for example, in basketball, ball is modified by
basket; and in misunderstand, the prefix mis- modifies understand. Contrast with
determinatum.
Determinative. A closed word-class which typically precedes the Head of a noun phrase.
Formally, they tend to be invariable, and semantically they express notions such as
(in)definiteness, deixis, quantity or number. Articles (the, a), quantifiers (some, few) or
demonstratives (this, that) belong to this category.
Determinatum. A linguistic unit that is modified by another linguistic unit. For example, in
Nice students, students is the determinatum, and nice is the determinant, or Modifier.
The determinatum is often referred to as Head. In morphology, this term can be applied to
affixation and compounding; for example, in basketball, ball is modified by basket; and in
misunderstand, the prefix mis- modifies understand. Contrast with determinant.
Determiner. The syntactic function carried out by the word-class determinative (e.g. articles,
demonstratives or quantifiers) within the noun phrase.
Direct Object. A syntactic constituent within the Predicate of a transitive clause pattern
typically realised by noun phrases, that-clauses and non-tensed clauses which often makes
reference to the entity the Subject acts upon, the entity resulting from the Subject’s action,
or the phenomenon the Subject can know, like, feel, hear or say. In mono-transitive
GLOSSARY 193

clauses, it usually appears immediately after the Predicator (e.g. The teachers used a new
book), whereas in ditransitive clauses it usually follows the Indirect Object (e.g. The
teachers gave their students a new book). The Direct Object can be modified by an Object
Complement as in They found it interesting. Contrast with Indirect Object.
Disjunct. A type of Adverbial that conveys the speaker’s comments on the content, or the
manner, of what is being said or written (e.g. Linguistically, this is not a working
solution). They are typically introduced in initial position and followed by a pause.
Dissimilation. A phenomenon whereby similar sounds in a word become less similar. That is
the case of particular or governor; where the /r/ sound occurs before another in the middle
of a word, the first tends to drop out. Contrast with assimilation.
Distribution. One of the criteria used to classify words into the various types of word-classes
referred to in linguistics. This is based on the potential contexts of use of the words under
analysis, which includes, among other things, their position within the phrase or clause, as
well as the type of words they can combine with (e.g. the distribution of nouns is marked
by the Determiners and the Modifiers that can precede them).
Ditransitive structure. A clause pattern requiring both a Direct Object and an Indirect
Object. The former tends to be inanimate and the latter animate, as in Andrew gave his
child (Oi) a sympathetic smile (Od). Their distribution varies, so that the Indirect Object
can precede the Direct Object, but also follow it; in that case, it will be realised by a
prepositional phrase instead of a noun phrase, like in Andrew gave a sympathetic smile
(Od) to his child (Oi). Contrast with monotransitive structure.
Diachrony. A diachronic approach considers the evolution of a language through history.
Contrast with synchrony.
Dynamic adjective. A type of adjective referring to attributes that can usually be controlled
by the entity possessing them. They can be used with verbs in the progressive form (e.g.
She is being nice) and the imperative mood (e.g. Be nice). Contrast with stative adjectives.

Ellipsis. The omission of one or more words which must be supplied by the listener or
reader.
Empty morph. Also called linking vowel or interfix, it is a morph (e.g. the first o in
psychology) whose main function is to link bound morphemes, and which is considered to
have no meaning and is not assigned to any morpheme.
Endocentric compound. A compound that is the equivalent to a phrase where one
constituent, which contains the basic meaning of the whole compound, fulfils the function
Head and another fulfils the function Modifier, such as battlefield, classmate or steamboat.
This can be explained on the grounds of an existing hyponymic relation between bases; in
other words, a steamboat is a type of boat, a classmate is a type of mate, and a battlefield is
a field where a battle is being or has been fought. Contrast with exocentric compound.
Epistemic modality. A subcategory of modality by means of which speakers express their
commitment to the likelihood or their knowledge about the truth contained in a
proposition. It is semantically associated with notions such as certainty, probability and
possibility, and it is usually realised by modal verbs (e.g. may, will, should), nouns (e.g.
possibility), adjectives (e.g. certain), adverbs (e.g. clearly) or lexical verbs (e.g. think).
Contrast with deontic modality.
Exclamative mood. A term used in the grammatical classification of sentence types.
Sentences in the exclamative mood are used to express strong emotions (e.g. How difficult
this task was!). Formally speaking, the Subject + Predicate sequence is preceded by What
or How. Contrast with declarative, imperative and interrogative mood.
Exocentric compound. A type of compound that seems to lack a Head. Frequently these
compounds refer to a class of human beings (e.g. redskin), or to a particular person, on the
194 GLOSSARY

grounds of some (often) pejorative properties (e.g. butterfingers). An alternative term is

bahuvrihi compound. Contrast with endocentric compound.

Form. One of the criteria used to classify words into the various types of word-classes
referred to in linguistics. This is based on the potential changes undergone by the word
under analysis; for example, nouns can change from singular to plural or verbs from
present tense to past tense (i.e. inflectional morphology), or adjectives can turn into
adverbs or nouns into adjectives (i.e. derivational morphology).
Free morpheme. A morpheme that can stand alone as a word. Contrast with bound
morpheme.
Free variation. The phenomenon of two (or more) sounds or forms appearing in the same
environment without a change in meaning. For example, the word economics can be
pronounced with /ɪ/ or /e/ in the first syllable; likewise, the comparative of many disyllabic
adjectives can be formed either periphrastically with more or with the suffix -er (e.g. more
stupid or stupider). Contrast with complementary distribution.
Function. The syntactic role performed by linguistic forms within larger grammatical units;
for instance, nouns function as Head within noun phrases, and noun phrases function as
Subject or Object within clauses. Function is one of the criteria used to classify words into
different word-classes.

Gender. In English, a lexico-semantic category of nouns related to notions such as animacy,

humanness, biological sex and subjectivity, which has a reflection in agreement with both
personal and relative pronouns. Thus, the gender of cow is [+ANIMATE ] [‒HUMAN]
[+FEMALE ]; stereotypically, for mariners, the gender of boat can be described in similar
terms due to some subjective reasons based on the close relationship between this vehicle
and the person in question.
Gradable adjective. An adjective describing a quality which can vary in intensity or grade;
for example, rather cold, cold, very cold, colder and the coldest.
Grammar. Also known as morphosyntax, the term grammar first refers to the rules that
govern a language; for example, how words combine, how they change according to their
relationship to other words, and how they build up into clausal or sentential units.
Furthermore, it is also used to make reference to the different schools that throughout
history have aimed to tackle the study of language, such as Chomsky’s Transformational
Generative Grammar or Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar. See also morphology
and syntax.
Grammatical hierarchy (also known as rankscale). The hierarchical organization of
grammatical units according to which each unit consists of one or more units of the next
lowest rank. It is integrated by sentences, clauses, phrases, words and morphemes.
Grammatical meaning. The meaning conveyed by word order, inflectional morphemes or
function words. Contrast with lexical meaning.
Grammatical unit. The grammatical units of English are these: morpheme, word, phrase,
clause and sentence. They are hierarchically organised; thus, one sentence consists of one
clause or more; one clause consists of one phrase or more; one phrase consists of one word
o more; and one word consists of one morpheme or more.
Grammatical word. Also called function word, it is a word with grammatical meaning, such
as prepositions, determinatives, subordinators, coordinators or auxiliary verbs. Contrast
with lexical word.
Grammaticalisation. The process which involves a shift in status of words from full lexical
units to mainly affixes. One example from the history of English can illustrate this
GLOSSARY 195

principle. Old English lic meant ‘form, body’ and existed as an independent word; later on
it was retained only as the ending -lice, which resulted in the suffix -ly.

Head. The key word determining the nature of a phrase (in contrast to any Dependents, such
as Modifiers or Determiners), which is compulsory in that structure, and controls it
semantically and syntactically. For example, in a noun phrase, the Head is a noun, in an
adjective phrase, the Head is an adjective, or in an adverb phrase, the Head is an adverb.
Homography. The relation whereby words have the same spelling but different origin,
meaning and sometimes pronunciation, such as the verb bear (to carry or endure) and the
noun bear (the animal with a shaggy coat).
Homomorphy. The relation whereby morphological units have the same orthographic and
phonological form, the same etymological origin and closely related meanings, but belong
to different word-classes (e.g. the verb right and the adjective right).
Homonymy. The relation whereby words have the same pronunciation or spelling but differ
in meaning, and are not etymologically related, such as bank (financial institution) and
bank (land along the side of a river).
Homophony. The relation whereby words (such as knew and new, or meat and meet) have
the same phonological form but different meaning, etymological origin and often spelling.
Hyphenated compound. A compound word combined using hyphens, such as half-naked,
narrow-minded or son-in-law.
Hyponymy. It shows the relationship between the more general terms, or hypernyms, and
the more specific instances of it, or hyponyms. A hyponym is a word or phrase whose
semantic field is more specific than its hypernym. The semantic field of a hypernym, also
known as a superordinate, is broader than that of a hyponym. For
example, carnation, daffodil, bluebell and clover are all hyponyms of flower.

Immediate constituent analysis. In linguistics, immediate constituent analysis, or IC

analysis, is a method of sentence analysis that was first proposed by Bloomfield, and
reached a full blown strategy for analysing sentence structure in the early works of
Chomsky. Most tree structures employed to represent the syntactic structure of sentences
are products of some form of IC analysis.
Imperative mood. A term used in the grammatical classification of sentence types.
Sentences in the imperative mood are used to give orders or instructions, and typically lack
an explicit Subject (e.g. Open the door!). Contrast with declarative, exclamative and
interrogative mood.
Indicative mood. Mood shows the attitude of the speaker or the writer to the action or state
described by the verb. The indicative is used in ordinary statements and questions.
Contrast with subjunctive mood.
Indirect Object. A syntactic constituent within the Predicate of a ditransitive clause pattern
which typically indicates to whom or for whom the action of the Predicator is performed.
It is usually realised by noun phrases; with verbs that can be followed by two objects, it
typically comes immediately after the verb and before the Direct Object; if the Direct
Object precedes the Indirect Object, the latter will be realised by a prepositional phrase
introduced by to or for; when the Indirect Object is realised by pronominal noun phrases,
they take the form of the objective case (e.g. They gave him a new calendar).
Infix. A type of affix that can be inserted within the base form of a word (rather than at its
beginning or end) to create a new word or to intensify its meaning, such as in
Singa·bloody·pore. The process of inserting an infix is called infixation.
Inflection. A morphological process by means of which some morphemes are attached to the
stem of a word to express diverse grammatical meanings. Inflections in English include the
196 GLOSSARY

plural, the third-person singular, the past tense, the -ing form of the continuous verbal
forms, the comparative and the superlative.
Initialism. An abbreviation that consists of the first letter or letters of words in a phrase, such
as FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation). Initialisms are usually written in capital letters,
and spoken letter by letter. Contrast with acronym.
Interfix. See empty morph.
Internal modification. Also called suprasegmental modification, it is where the tone or
stress pattern of a word signals a particular morphological operation such as conversion
(e.g. ˈconvertN vs. conˈvertV).
Interrogative mood. A term used in the grammatical classification of sentence types.
Sentences in the interrogative mood are typically used to ask questions; they usually begin
with an interrogative word (e.g. who, when, where) and present Subject-Auxiliary
inversion, as in What are you reading? Contrast with declarative, exclamative and
imperative mood.
Intransitive structure. A clause pattern where the Predicator does not need to take any
Objects (e.g. The bomb did not explode). Some other types of (adverbial) complementation
are nevertheless very frequent in this pattern (e.g. She lived in Sydney).

Language. A typically human system of communication that uses arbitrary signs such as
sounds, gestures or written symbols to convey meanings. The study of language is called
linguistics.
Left-headed compound. A compound where the determinatum or Head precedes the
determinant or Modifier (e.g. attorney general, brother-in-law). Contrast with right-
headed compound.
Lexeme. The fundamental unit of the lexicon of a language. When we find one example such
as put up with consisting of more than one word, we call it lexical unit.
Lexical meaning. Also called denotation, it is the meaning of lexical words such as nouns,
verbs, adjectives and adverbs, independent of their use in any context in which they may
occur. Contrast with grammatical meaning.
Lexical verb. An open word-class characterised by some grammatical features such as tense
and the third person singular. English lexical verbs have different forms such as the
infinitive, past, present, and past and present participle, and function as the Head, or Main
Verb, of the verb phrase. Contrast with auxiliary verb.
Lexical word. Also called content word, it is a word with lexical meaning, such as nouns,
verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Contrast with grammatical word.
Lexicalisation. A process by means of which words which, at a certain stage, were
transparent in their composition, or in the derivational process, are no longer so. For
example, the word asleep derives from Old English on slæpe, but in Contemporary English
it is not understood as being ‘on sleep’. In Old English we had a transparent phrase; in
Contemporary English we have an opaque compound. Thus the phrase has become
lexicalised, and speakers can no longer derive it from on + sleep but learn it as a single
word.
Lexicology. The branch of linguistics that studies the stock of words (or lexicon) in a given
language.
Lexicon. A lexicon is a language’s inventory of lexemes, or catalogue of a language’s words.
Linking vowel. See empty morph.
Linguistics. The scientific study of the nature, structure and variation of language. Major
subfields of linguistics include phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics,
pragmatics and discourse analysis.
GLOSSARY 197

Main verb. The Head of the verb phrase realised by a lexical verb. It may be accompanied
by Dependents known as the Auxiliary System, which are typically realised by inflections
or auxiliary verbs.
Mass noun. A type of common noun (such as advice, bread, knowledge or luck) that names
things that in English cannot usually be counted. A mass noun (also known as non-count
noun) is generally used only in the singular, and cannot be combined with the indefinite
article or numerals, but it accepts the zero determiner (e.g. He hates beer). Many abstract
nouns are uncountable, but not all uncountable nouns are abstract. Contrast with count
noun.
Mental lexicon. It is a construct used in linguistics and psycholinguistics to refer to
individual speakers’ lexical representations. It differs from the lexicon of a language in that
it is not just a general collection of words; instead, it deals with how those words are
activated, stored, processed and retrieved by each speaker. An individual’s mental lexicon
changes and grows as new words are learned and is always developing, but it can also
shrink as an individual ages and starts forgetting words or is unable to learn more.
Modifier. A type of optional phrasal Dependent realised by words, phrases or clauses that
provide additional information about the Head (e.g. very intelligent; clearly nice; happy
people; students from Russia; teachers who like working; information to take into
account; immigrants living in the US). Modifiers tend to appear before the Head they
modify. When they appear after the Head, they are called Post-modifiers or Qualifiers.
They may be either restrictive (essential to the meaning of a phrase) or non-restrictive
(additional but not essential elements in a phrase).
Monotransitive structure. A clause pattern in which the Predicator requires one compulsory
argument, which can be a Direct Object (e.g. They do not trust their colleague) or a
Prepositional Object (e.g. They do not rely on their colleague). Contrast with ditransitive
structure.
Morph. The formal realisation of a morpheme. Actually a morph is a word segment, or
suprasegmental material such as stress shift, that represents one morpheme in sound or
writing. For example, the word inactive is made up of three morphs (i.e. in-, act-, -ive),
each of which represents one different morpheme. Contrast with morpheme. See also
allomorph.
Morpheme. The smallest meaningful unit of a language. As such, it is an abstract unit which
can have one or more formal realizations. Contrast with morph.
Morphology. The branch of linguistics (and one of the major components of grammar) that
studies the internal structure of words in terms of morphemes.
Morphosyntax. See grammar.

Native morphology. In morphology, the Germanic component in English is often referred to

as native. Contrast with non-native morphology.
Neoclassical compound. A compound word resulting from the combination of Greek- or
Latin-derived forms which act as affixes or stems. For example, pachy- combines with -
derm to form pachyderm. These compounds are a substantial component of the technical
and scientific lexicon of English.
Non-compositionality. The notion according to which words are stored in the mental lexicon
as whole units, and are directly accessed as such. Contrast with compositionality.
Non-concatenation. One of the two building techniques used to add extensions to roots most
frequent in Semitic languages. Words are formed by weaving in a vowel pattern on a root
that is, by itself, unpronounceable; for instance, in Arabic, all the words referring to the
notion of writing involve the k-t-b root, interleaved with vowel patterns: kataba (to write),
kitaab (book), kaatib (writer). Contrast with concatenation.
198 GLOSSARY

Non-gradable adjective. An adjective that makes reference to a quality which cannot vary in
intensity or grade because they are extremes (e.g. freezing), absolutes (e.g. dead) or
classifying (e.g. nuclear).
Non-native morphology. In morphology, the Romance component in English is often
referred to as non-native. Contrast with native morphology.
Non-tensed verb phrase. Also called non-finite verb phrase, it is a type of verb phrase that
does not show a distinction in tense and cannot stand alone as the Predicator of a main
clause. There are three types of non-tensed verb phrases: infinitive (e.g. to go), present
participle (e.g. going) and past participle (e.g. gone). Contrast with tensed verb phrase.
Noun. An open word-class characterised by the morphological feature number and its being
preceded by determinatives; syntactically, it functions as the Head of a noun phrase;
semantically, it often refers to concrete and abstract entities in the world.
Number. A grammatical category typical of nouns formally expressed as an inflectional
contrast between a singular and a plural form (e.g. bike vs. bikes), syntactically reflected in
determinative-noun-verb agreement (e.g. This bike goes a lot faster vs. These bikes go a lot
faster); semantically, it typically expresses a contrast between one and more than one.

Object Complement. A syntactic constituent within the Complex-transitive structure that

follows the Direct Object and semantically renames or describes it. It is usually realised by
a noun phrase or an adjective phrase (e.g. They called her Babylon).
Onomasiology. A branch of lexicology concerned with the names of concepts. Contrast with
semasiology.
Onset. The part of the syllable that precedes the vowel of the syllable (e.g. sp in spoil).
Opacity. The impossibility of relating the meaning of a complex word to the meanings of its
apparent component morphemes. For example, a word like department is said to be
semantically opaque because its meaning is not related to the meaning of depart and -ment,
and the meaning of depart in department is not related to depart in departure. Contrast
with transparency.
Open compound. A compound with spaces between the bases it consists of, as in living
room, science fiction, full moon or school bus.
Open word-class. A type of word-class to which new members can be added (by means of
word-formation processes). Their members tend to be morphologically variable and have
lexical meaning. Examples of open word-classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs.
Contrast with closed word-class.
Operational test. A test that can be used to determine the internal constituency of a complex
unit such as a clause or a phrase. Some operational tests are the passive transformation,
reduction, expansion or wh-question elicitation.
Operator. An operator is an auxiliary or helping verb such as to do in interrogative
sentences. In declarative sentences, they appear before frequency adverbs such as always
and the main verb in its infinitive (e.g. may always work), present participle (e.g. was
living) and past participle forms (e.g. have studied; were provided). The negative particle
is added to them.
Output. By the application of certain modifications to a base unit, or source, derivational
processes create new lexemes from existing lexemes, or output. Also known as derivative.

Paradigmatic axis. Axis of selection; thus, in a simple noun phrase we could choose several
determinatives, and have the nice house, a nice house, this nice house, that nice house, on
the grounds of the categories deixis and number; likewise, we could choose several
adjectives and not others based upon the denotative meaning of the Head noun (e.g. a
plastic bag vs. *plastic thoughts).
GLOSSARY 199

Parsing. A traditional grammatical exercise involving breaking down a linguistic string into
its component parts of speech with an explanation of the form, function and syntactic
relationship of each part. In contemporary linguistics, this term usually refers to the
computer-aided syntactic analysis of language.
Phoneme. The basic unit of phonology. This is combined with other phonemes to form
morphemes. Technically, it is described as the smallest contrastive linguistic unit that may
bring about a change of meaning; thus, the difference in meaning between live and leave is
a result of the exchange of the phoneme /ɪ/ for the phoneme /i:/. Two words that differ in
meaning through a contrast of a single phoneme form a minimal pair.
Phonetics. The branch of linguistics dealing with speech sounds, and their production,
transmission, reception, combination, description and representation by written symbols.
Contrast with phonology.
Phonology. The branch of linguistics that studies sounds with reference to their distribution
and patterning. It has traditionally focused on the study of the systems of phonemes. It
describes the way sounds function to encode meaning. Contrast with phonetics.
Phrase. A grammatical unit consisting of one or more words, where generally the one which
is compulsory fulfils the function of Head and the rest are Dependents. There are a number
of different types of phrases depending on their Head, such as noun phrases (e.g. a red
pen), verb phrase (e.g. can go), adverb phrases (e.g. very quickly), adjective phrases (e.g.
nicer than you expected) or prepositional phrases (e.g. in the flat).
Phrasal compound. A group of words that express a complex meaning, but are not formed
through the usual noun or verb modification, as in along-the-wall, over-the-fence, pipe-
and-slipper or slept-all-day.
Polarity. The distinction between affirmative and negative forms, which may be expressed
syntactically (I want a Coke vs. I don’t want a Coke), morphologically (possible vs.
impossible), or lexically (yes vs. no).
Polysemy. The capacity for a sign to have multiple senses which are usually related by
contiguity of meaning within a semantic field. For example, the derived noun destruction
can denote (1) an event and (2) a result. It is thus regarded as distinct from homonymy, in
which the multiple meanings of a word may be unconnected or unrelated. Words’
etymology can be helpful in determining polysemy but not the only solution.
Portmanteau morph. A single morph which represents two or more morphemes, as in stops,
where -s means present simple tense, third person and singular number. See also
cumulation.
POS (part of speech). See word-class.
Post-modifier. A type of Modifier, also known as Qualifier, within a phrasal structure,
which typically follows the Head whose meaning it limits. It can mainly be realised by
prepositional phrases (e.g. the man in the corner), relative clauses (e.g. the woman who
was living in Paris) or non-tensed clauses (e.g. the students working harder).
Pragmatics. The branch of linguistics that studies how the transmission of meaning depends
not only on structural and linguistic knowledge of both speaker and hearer, but also on the
utterance context, the speaker’s inferred intent and other extralinguistic factors. It
encompasses speech act theory, conversational implicature, talk in interaction, and other
approaches to language behaviour in philosophy, sociology and anthropology. Contrast
with semantics.
Predicate. One of the two main parts of a sentence or clause which follows the Subject, and
includes the Predicator, Objects, Complements and Adverbials.
Predicative adjective phrase. An adjective phrase that usually follows a linking verb such
as be and modifies phrases in the position of Subject. Contrast with attributive adjective
phrase.
200 GLOSSARY

Predicator. The most relevant constituent of the Predicate, semantically specifying actions,
processes or states. The Predicator is realised by tensed and non-tensed verb phrases, and
largely determines the number and type of other clause constituents.
Prefixation. The process of adding a prefix to a word so that new words can be formed as in
disloyal.
Preposition. Prepositions and post-positions are a subcategory of closed word-classes that
mainly express spatio-temporal relations (e.g. in, under, before, ago), and typically
combine with a noun phrase forming a prepositional phrase. English has prepositions
rather than post-positions.
Prescriptivism. The attitude or belief that one variety of a language is superior to others and
should be promoted as such. In traditional grammar, this term refers to the scholar’s
concern for good, proper or correct usage. Contrast with descriptivism.
Productivity. A general term for the limitless ability to use language to say new things,
which can then be explained on the grounds of availability and profitability. Also known
as open-endedness or creativity. In a narrower sense, this is commonly applied to
particular forms or constructions that can produce new instances of the same type; that is
the case of affixes such as dis-, in clear contrast with very unproductive affixes such as -
ledge.
Pronoun. A word that substitutes for a noun phrase, clause, sentence or even text. It is a
particular case of a pro-form and is regarded as one of the closed word-classes. Subtypes
include personal pronouns, demonstratives, relatives, interrogatives and indefinites. Their
use often involves anaphora, where the meaning of the pronoun is dependent on an
antecedent.
Proper noun. A noun belonging to the class of words used as names for unique individuals,
events or places. Proper nouns (e.g. Josh, Brazil, Venus) typically begin with a capital
letter, and are not usually preceded by articles or other determinatives because of their
being self-defining by nature. Most of them are singular. Contrast with common noun.

Qualifier. A type of Modifier, also known as Post-modifier, within a phrasal structure, which
typically follows the Head whose meaning it limits. It can mainly be realised by
prepositional phrases (e.g. the man in the corner), relative clauses (e.g. the woman who
was living in Paris) or non-tensed clauses (e.g. the students working harder).

Rankscale. See grammatical hierarchy.

Rankshift. See subordination.
Recursivity. The quality of being recursive, that is, the embedding potential of a
morphological unit or syntactic structure within another unit or structure of the same type,
respectively.
Reduplication. Also called rhyming compound. It contains rhyming elements such as
blackjack, voodoo or pooper-scooper.
Relative clause. A clause that generally modifies the Head of a noun phrase, and is
introduced by a relative (that, which, where, when, who, whom, whose, why) or a zero
relative. They are traditionally divided into restrictive and non-restrictive, or defining and
non-defining relative clauses (e.g. The man who could not jump in time came from your
village vs. Mike, who could not jump in time, came from your village).
Relator.A grammatical linker typically realised by a preposition (e.g. before dinner), a
conjunction (e.g. before the meeting started) or a genitive marker (e.g. John’s arrival) that
relates the axis to the containing construction.
Right-headed compound. Most English compounds are said to be right-headed, due to the
fact that the right base behaves as the Head, or determinatum, and the element to the left
GLOSSARY 201

behaves as a Modifier, or determinant (e.g. stir-fry, oil-rich, swearword). Contrast with

left-headed compound.
Rime. The part of a syllable which consists of its vowel and any consonant sounds that come
after it (e.g. oil in spoil).
Root. That part of a word left when all affixes are removed. Contrast with base and stem.

Semantic role. The underlying relationship a clause constituent has with the Predicator.
Some of the most frequent ones are the following: Subjects tend to be the agent, or doer, of
an event (e.g. The child did not break the window). Very often the affected role
corresponds with the Direct Object (e.g. The child did not break the window). The
experiencer is an entity that receives a sensory impression (e.g. The man could hear the
noise). A beneficiary is the role of a referent which is advantaged or disadvantaged by an
event (e.g. The student bought a grammar book for her mother). Sayers are found in
communication processes (e.g. My neighbours told me that your friends are very nice).
Semantics. The branch of linguistics concerned with the study of meaning in language, more
specifically of how languages organise and express meanings. Contrast with pragmatics.
Semasiology. The branch of linguistics concerned with the meaning of a word independent
of its phonetic expression. Contrast with onomasiology.
Semi-affix. See affixoid.
Sentence. For some linguists, the largest independent unit of grammar, consisting of one or
more clauses related by coordination or subordination.
Simple sentence. A sentence consisting of only one single clause. Contrast with complex
sentence.
Simplex word. Also known as monomorphemic word, it is a word that contains just one
morpheme (e.g. stop). Contrast with complex word.
Solid compound. Compounds written as one single word (e.g. teapot, blackbird).
Source. Also known as base, it is the unit to which prefixes and suffixes are added to create
new words.
Splinter. A fragment of a word used in the formation of new words arising as a result of its
reanalysis, which involves (re)assignment of meaning to the new morphological unit. For
example, following the pattern of alcoholic, in chocoholic, -holic has acquired the meaning
‘addicted to X’, just as in workaholic or shopaholic.
Split morphology. A view of morphology where the distinction between inflection and
derivation is clear-cut. Contrast with continuous morphology.
Stative adjective. An adjective demoting more or less permanent states or signifying
attributes that cannot usually be controlled by the entity possessing them, this being the
reason why, normally, they can neither be used with verbs in the progressive form (e.g.
*She is being English) nor in the imperative mood (e.g. *Be English). Contrast with
dynamic adjectives.
Stem. Any form to which inflectional affixes can be attached. In English, most stems also
qualify as words. Contrast with base and root.
Subject. The clausal constituent that commonly appears at the start of declarative sentences
preceding the Predicator, or following the operator in interrogative sentences. It is typically
realised by a noun phrase (e.g. The girl was happy), a that-clause (e.g. That you are tired
is more than obvious), a non-tensed clause (e.g. Smoking in public places was allowed
some years ago) or a nominal relative clause (e.g. What you need is love). The Subject
generally indicates what the clause is about, or who or what performs the action referred to
by the Predicator.
Subject Complement. A clause constituent (usually realised by an adjective phrase or a
noun phrase) which follows a linking verb and describes or renames the Subject of the
sentence (e.g. Marie was nervy).
202 GLOSSARY

Subjunctive mood. Mood shows the attitude of the speaker or the writer to the action or
state described by the verb. The subjunctive is very rare in English; it is used to express
doubts or wishes. Contrast with indicative mood.
Subordination. Also known as rankshift, it is the phenomenon whereby a unit of a given
rank in the grammatical hierarchy functions as a constituent of a unit of the same or a
lower rank, as when clauses function as constituents of other clauses or phrases; thus, one
is dependent on (or subordinate to) another. Clausal subordination is often (but not always)
indicated by a subordinator (e.g. that, if, because) or a relative (e.g. who, which, where).
Contrast with coordination.
Subordinative compound. Any compound where one of the components is the semantic and
the structural centre, and the second component is subordinate to the former; the relation
between designatum and designans can vary and convey comparison (e.g. honey-sweet),
limit (e.g. breast-high), emphasis (e.g. dog-cheap), object (e.g. gold-rich), subject (e.g.
foot-sore), cause (e.g. love-sick), space (e.g. top-heavy) or time (e.g. spring-fresh).
Contrast with coordinative compound.
Subordinator. Also known as subordinating conjunction, it is a subcategory of closed word-
classes that introduces a dependent clause into the structure of a main clause. Most
subordinators are single words (e.g. because, after, if). However, some of them consist of
more than one word (e.g. as long as, given that). Contrast with coordinator.
Suffixation. The process of adding a suffix to a base or stem in order to create either a
different form of that word (e.g. happy > happier), or a new word with a different meaning
(happy > happiness).
Suppletion. In morphology, the use of phonetically and orthographically distinct roots for
different forms of the same word, such as the adjective bad and its suppletive comparative
and superlative forms worse and worst.
Suppletive morph. A morph from a different root used in a paradigm, or grammatically
related set of forms; for example, went is the suppletive past of the verb go. Likewise, the
comparatives and superlatives of four highly frequent words such as good, bad, much and
little are suppletive morphs in Contemporary English: better, best; worse, worst; more,
most; less, least.
Synchrony. A synchronic approach aims at describing language rules at a specific point of
time, even though they may have been different at an earlier stage of the language.
Contrast with diachrony.
Syntagma. Given that the internal structure of outputs can be analysed in terms of the
syntactic relation between its constituents, some linguists call them syntagmas. In
syntagmas, the determinatum behaves as if it were the Head in a phrase structure (e.g.
arm·chair), and the determinant as if it were the Modifier (e.g. dis·agree).
Syntagmatic axis. The axis of combination (e.g. The + student + was + happy). Contrast
with paradigmatic axis.
Syntax. One of the two major components of grammar (the other one being morphology).
Syntax accounts for the rules that govern the ways in which words combine to form
phrases, clauses and sentences.
Synthetic compound. Any compound whose designatum shows derivation, especially when
the right base is a deverbal noun ending in -er or an -ing verb, as in theatre-goer or bird-
watching.

Tense. Tense is a verbal grammatical category mostly realised by the past tense morpheme in
regular verbs (e.g. walk > walked); irregular patterns include suppletive forms (e.g. go >
went) or zero derivation (e.g. cut > cut). Semantically, it is connected with the notion of
temporal, social or psychological distance; that is the reason why it is typically used to
GLOSSARY 203

convey the idea of past and present (e.g. They worked in the morning), deference (e.g.
Could you pass me the salt?) and doubt (e.g. This might happen in the future again).
Tensed verb phrase. Also called finite verb phrase, a type of verb phrase that shows a
distinction in tense and can stand alone as the main verb in a sentence. Contrast with non-
tensed verb phrase.
Text. The largest unit of linguistic description, of either written or spoken nature, which,
thanks to all sorts of devices, comes to be cohesive and coherent.
Transitive structure. A clause pattern where the Predicate has at least one argument (i.e. the
Direct Object); semantically, this often refers to an entity affected by the Subject’s actions
(e.g. She kicked the ball). It may also contain an additional argument, the Indirect Object
(e.g. She gave her girlfriend a kiss), or an Object Complement attributing some qualities
to the Direct Object (e.g. She found him funny).
Transparency. A morphologically complex word is semantically transparent if its meaning
can be inferred from its component parts, because of its being partly lexicalised;
disenchantment is semantically transparent, being made up in a predictable fashion from
dis-, -enchant- and -ment. Contrast with opacity.
Transposition. The morphological process by means of which the lexical class (category) of
a lexeme changes, as in conversion (emptyAdj > emptyV) and suffixation (e.g. beautyN >
beauty·fulAdj).
Tree diagram. One of the types of bracketing often used by linguists as a graphic tool to
break down and then map out all the components of a clausal or phrasal structure. It is
sometimes used in morphology as well to show how words are decomposed into smaller
units we call morphemes.
Truncated compound. Compound words such as sitcom (i.e. situation comedy), which are
formed by truncation, are called truncated compounds. Other linguists prefer the term
blending instead.
Truncation. A word-formation process in which both members of a compound word are
truncated as in sitcom (i.e. situation comedy).

Voice. A grammatical category common in many of the world’s languages affecting the verb
phrase, and the distribution of clause constituents and semantic roles. The two terms of the
category are active (e.g. They organised a fantastic conference) and passive voice (e.g. A
fantastic conference was organised by them).
Vowel alternation. Also known as vowel change, it is the morphological pattern found in
irregular verbs such as hang (hung), see (saw) or take (took); or in the plural formation of
words such as foot (feet), goose (geese) or mouse (mice), where partial suppletion takes
place. This phenomenon is challenging for any theory of morphology because it involves a
change inside the stem, rather than the addition of an affix to the stem.

Word. According to Bloomfield’s definition, the minimal free form of a language, that it, the
smallest combination of form and meaning that can stand alone as an independent unit.
Linguists often distinguish between orthographic words (i.e. a written sequence which has
a white space at each end but no white space in the middle), phonological words (i.e. a
piece of speech which behaves as a unit of pronunciation), lexical words or lexemes (i.e.
an abstract unit of the lexicon of a language, with a more or less identifiable meaning or
function), and grammatical words (i.e. one of the several forms that may be assumed by a
lexical unit for grammatical purposes).
204 GLOSSARY

Zero morph. A morph with no orthographic or phonological form proposed as a possible

realisation of a morpheme that is ordinarily realised by other morphs with full phonetic
form (e.g. the plural form of sheep). This term is of particular relevance in the analysis of
conversion (e.g. bottleN > bottleV).